Today is the first official work day of my new doctoral researcher position at Delft University of Technology. After more than two years of laying the ground work, I’m starting out on a new challenge.
I remember sitting outside a Jewel coffee bar in Singapore1 and going over the various options for whatever would be next after shutting down Hubbub. I knew I wanted to delve into the impact of machine learning and data science on interaction design. And largely through process of elimination I felt the best place for me to do so would be inside of academia.
Back in the Netherlands, with help from Ianus Keller, I started making inroads at TU Delft, my first choice for this kind of work. I had visited it on and off over the years, coaching students and doing guest lectures. I’d felt at home right away.
There were quite a few twists and turns along the way but now here we are. Starting this month I am a doctoral candidate at Delft University of Technology’s faculty of Industrial Design Engineering.
My research is provisionally titled ‘Intelligibility and Transparency of Smart Public Infrastructures: A Design Oriented Approach’. Its main object of study is the MX3D smart bridge. My supervisors are Gerd Kortuem and Neelke Doorn. And it’s all part of the NWO-funded project ‘BRIdging Data in the built Environment (BRIDE)’.
Below is a first rough abstract of the research. But in the months to come this is likely to change substantially as I start hammering out a proper research plan. I plan to post the occasional update on my work here, so if you’re interested your best bet is probably to do the old RSS thing. There’s social media too, of course. And I might set up a newsletter at some point. We’ll see.
If any of this resonates, do get in touch. I’d love to start a conversation with as many people as possible about this stuff.
Intelligibility and Transparency of Smart Public Infrastructures: A Design Oriented Approach
This phd will explore how designers, technologists, and citizens can utilize rapid urban manufacturing and IoT technologies for designing urban space that expresses its intelligence from the intersection of people, places, activities and technology, not merely from the presence of cutting-edge technology. The key question is how smart public infrastructure, i.e. data-driven and algorithm-rich public infrastructures, can be understood by lay-people.
The design-oriented research will utilize a ‘research through design’ approach to develop a digital experience around the bridge and the surrounding urban space. During this extended design and making process the phd student will conduct empirical research to investigate design choices and their implications on (1) new forms of participatory data-informed design processes, (2) the technology-mediated experience of urban space, (3) the emerging relationship between residents and “their” bridge, and (4) new forms of data-informed, citizen led governance of public space.
- My Foursquare history and 750 Words archive tell me this was on Saturday, January 16, 2016. [↩]